Case for the Hall: Moises Alou of Houston Astros & Chicago Cubs

By Matt Heckler

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

Among the most intriguing names of players that will soon be on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame is Moises Alou, who played for seven different teams but had the prime of his career with the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros. Moises Alou was of a great baseball family, and managed to be the best of his bloodline in the MLB.

Over 17 seasons in the MLB, Moises Alou had really excellent averages. His career batting AVG was .303, and his total OPS of .885 puts him in the top 90 players to ever play the game. He was a true five-tool player for the majority of his career, with good speed, good fielding and throwing, great contact numbers and great power. He hit 421 doubles, 332 homers and 2,134 base hits in his career, despite missing two full seasons due to injury and missing numerous other games due to nagging problems from previous injury.

Moises Alou made it to the All-Star team six times, including once as a member of the Montreal Expos, once as a Florida Marlin, twice as a Houston Astro, once as a member of the Chicago Cubs and once as a San Francisco Giant. He also managed to break the 100+ RBI mark five times in his career, and the 100+ run mark twice. He won two Silver Slugger awards (1994, 1998) and came very close to a batting title on two separate occasions: in 2000 he lost to Todd Helton, and in 2001 to Larry Walker and Helton, both of whom were batting primarily in the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field.

These are all impressive feats, but here’s something even more interesting: he should have at least one MVP award. In 1994, Moises Alou finished 3rd in MVP voting behind Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros and Matt Williams, the latter of which has been proven to have used performance enhancing drugs, and thus should be disqualified, making Alou’s position actually second place in non-cheating MVP voting.

In 1998, Alou finished 3rd once more, this time behind Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, BOTH of whom have tested positive for PEDs, making Moises Alou the rightful heir to the MVP Award of the 1998 season. Being a five-tool player considered to be among the best outfielders of his era is enough to get close to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but adding an MVP award and the fact that he only lost two batting titles to players in an enormously advantageous ballpark and you have the case for Moises Alou being a Baseball Hall of Famer. Whether or not the voters will see it this way remains to be seen, but if I were a voting member, he would have my vote.

Matt Heckler is a baseball writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @androiddreamer and add him to your network on Google.